Ceci n'est pas une blog.

For those who don't know, a soldier was shot dead a week ago by someone who rode off on "a motorbike". This happened only a few kilometres from where we live, although we happened to be out of the country at the time. Then last Thursday two more soldiers were killed and another injured in the centre of Montauban, a town some way north of Toulouse. Again, some guy shot them then fled on a scooter.

Ironically, I was watching the news this morning about this flight through Montauban (which was observed on CCTV) around eight. At eight-fifteen, someone - probably the same person - opened fire at a jewish school in a suburb of Toulouse, not far from the first shooting a week ago. By eight-thirty, we happened to be passing the main road a street away from that same school... wondering why the traffic was so bad and why we'd seen several ambulances.

Just when we reached the crossroads leading to the school, I commented on the stupidity of a guy on a large black scooter for the way he was trying to push into the blocked traffic, thereby causing more gridlock for people coming in other directions. I pushed past him on our own little scooter and then observed him in my mirrors struggling to find a way through. After the traffic ahead opened up a bit I started to dodge in and out of traffic coming the other way to try and pass the hundreds of cars queuing all the way up the road. But apparently I wasn't pushing fast enough for someone who appeared in my mirrors... tailing me on a black scooter, wearing a black biking jacket and open-face helmet with blacked-out visor. Eventually this person overtook me and later turned left, heading back into the residential housing on the hillside.

Fast forward a few hours and we learn about the shootings. Crucially; the killer again got away on a large black scooter! And if he'd tried to head into town on the main road, maybe five to ten minutes after the whole thing kicked off, he would have come to that very same junction from the same direction around the same time as the guy I saw!

Now, of course, it seems like Toulouse is dealing with another Raoul Moat - which makes my ride into town this morning seem quite... er... interesting.

And considering the apparent racist motives behind the attacks (the soldiers were all black or "muslim"), we're understandably nervous about the whole thing.